The Copies
by CPCoulter Writes My Canon
Summary: Each member of the Fab Five had a copy of the photo taken that day on the steps,and to each member, it means something different. But only one person has the original... BASED OFF CP COULTER'S DALTON


**I am NOT CP Coulter, but she has expressed her permission to her fans to write Dalton!verse fictions. This is a spinoff of her story Dalton (go read it now or this will not make sense at all)**

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The photo on Blaine's picture board was a memory captured in time, at the perfectly blissful moment. Looking at that photo, you would never guess what sort of torment those five individuals faced on each and every day of their lives.

But Blaine's photo was a copy.

It wasn't the original photo taken that day, but still, he cherished it. It stood proud along with the other various photos he had put up to show the world. Blaine's was a reminder of worse, but good times.

* * *

Erin's photo was taped to the bathroom mirror. It seemed like a silly place to have it; but she saw it every morning when she woke up, and every night before she went to bed. The only people who saw it that much were her and her girlfriend.

For Erin, it reminded her of the good times she had; not the bad. She remembered the days on the steps, the sun in her hair after a long run; Micah tripping over her as he stalked around with his nose in a book. Jude constantly snapping terrible photos of her with her eyes closed, mouth open and hair frazzled. Blaine tugging anxiously at his curls as he tried in vain to squash them down, tutting at Shane who was NEVER seen without breaking into some dance moves.

But Erin's photo was a copy as well.

* * *

Shane's was inside his wallet, he never went anywhere without his wallet. Anytime he opened up to pay for something, he would catch a glimpse of their smiling faces and not be able to suppress a grin. Those times had been good, no matter how much hell they all went through they knew they would have someone there.

Whenever he felt alone, or depressed, he would look at the picture.

The picture was a rope to him, keeping him anchored to the past good memories, reminding him that even when things feel terrible. They eventually get better in ways you can't imagine.

Shane's is a copy, too.

* * *

Micah's is a bookmark. Whenever he is forced to pull away from his latest novel, he slips the photo carefully between the pages. It's slightly worn around the edges, a few tears beginning in the corners, but Micah doesn't mind.

As long as he still has it.

It's his only reminder of the friends he used to have. He was too scared to call, too scared to contact them after what had happened with Shane's father. This picture was all he had left of Blaine, Shane, Erin….and Jude.

He might contact them one day, or at least try to. Maybe one day they can all come back together and just sit and talk, if only for a little while.

Micah's photo is the only connection he has to a world he was forced out of.

And it's a copy.

* * *

The original photo of all these copies is in a box.

It seems anticlimactic to have the original of such an important photo in a box; but after the death of their son, Jude's parents couldn't bear having his photography displayed around the house anymore.

So, discarded in a large cardboard box in the attic of Jude's house, is the photo he took that now means so much to four different people.

In all honesty, he had never even thought it to be his best work. The lighting was off; Erin's left arm was out of shot; Blaine was awkwardly positioned between Shane and Micah and his right foot was just off-camera, as he had almost missed the timer signaling the photo.

But he loved it. It showed a new moment in five people's lives; the moment when they realized they weren't alone, they didn't have to be scared, and they had people out there who would fight for them.

Now, it was ripped across the bottom, and wedged between a landscape photograph and a portrait shot of Jude's grandmother, crumpled and folded over. In fading pencil, Jude had scrawled a message, something he very rarely did on his own works.

"_The Fab Five first group shot- things are getting better"_

Jude's wasn't a copy.

But he no longer had a use for the original.


End file.
